Various apparatus have hereto been provided for forming and transferring groups of articles. Some prior apparatus receive articles in succession and stack the articles in vertically arranged groups. Some others receive articles in succession and assemble the articles in a generally horizontally extending row. When thin or flat articles are assembled in a generally horizontally extending row, problems are presented in properly supporting the articles on edge during assembly of successive articles into a group, and during transfer of the group of articles to a subsequent station. Further, some articles such as confection bars and frozen confections can be easily deformed or crushed and it is important to limit the forces and pressures which are applied to the articles during assembly of the articles into groups and transfer of the groups to a subsequent station to prevent damaging the articles. In general, these problems are aggravated as the operational speed of the group forming and transferring apparatus is increased.